1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a moving point gesture determination method, and more particularly, a moving point gesture determination method, touch control chip and a touch control system using the same, and computer system facilitating more intuitive and more convenient operations by allowing users to directly move an object corresponding to a touch point, without first confirming an operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, touch sensing devices such as capacitive, resistive and other types of touch sensing devices, are capable of generating detecting signals related to a touch event by a user and providing them to a touch sensing chip; the chip then compares the signal values of the detecting signals with threshold values to determine a touch point, and in turn, a gesture, according to the results. In the example of capacitive touch sensing devices, touch events are determined by detecting the capacitance difference generated when the human body touches a touch point on the touch panel; in other words, capacitive touch sensing is implemented through determining a touch point, and in turn, a touch event, by detecting the variations in capacitance characteristics when the human body touches the touch point.
Specifically, please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a conventional projected capacitive touch sensing device 10. The projected capacitive touch sensing device 10 includes sensing capacitor strings X1-Xm, Y1-Yn; each sensing capacitor string is a one-dimensional structure formed by connecting a plurality of sensing capacitor in series. Conventional touch sensing methods resort to detecting the capacitance in each sensing capacitor string to determine whether a touch event occurs. The sensing capacitor strings X1-Xm and Y1-Yn are utilized to determine vertical and horizontal touch events, respectively. In the case of horizontal operations, assume the sensing capacitor string X1 has Q sensing capacitors, each sensing capacitor with a capacitance of C, then under normal circumstances, the sensing capacitor string X1 has a capacitance of QC; and when the human body (e.g. a finger) comes in contact with a sensing capacitor of the sensing capacitor string X1, assume the difference in capacitance is ΔC. It follows that, if the capacitance of the sensing capacitor string X1 is detected to be greater than or equal to a predefined value (e.g. QC+ΔC), it can be inferred that the finger is touching a certain point on the sensing capacitor string X1. Likewise, the similar may be asserted for vertical operations. As illustrated in FIG. 1, when the finger touches a touch point TP1 (i.e. coordinates (X3, Y3)), the capacitance in the sensing capacitor strings X3 and Y3 concurrently varies, and it may be determined that the touch point falls at coordinates (X3, Y3). Notice, however, that the threshold capacitance of the sensing capacitor strings X1-Xm, for determining vertical directions, and the threshold capacitance of the sensing capacitor strings Y1-Yn, for determining horizontal directions, do not necessarily have to be the same, depending on the practical requirement.
As can be seen from the above, the touch control chip compares signal values of the detecting signals generated by the touch sensing device with predefined threshold values, so it is possible to determine positions of all touch points and continuous occurrence times from start to end of a touch event, and in turn, to determine a gesture.
As for moving point gesture determination, since conventional moving point gestures apply to touch panels on notebook computers, and dimensions of the touch panels are often limited, with only a fraction of an area of the notebook computer screen, thus operations are limited to using relative position mapping. Consequently, conventional moving point gesture detection impose certain determination conditions, requiring users to first click to confirm an object to be moved, to prevent a faulty determination of a position of the object to be moved.
Specifically, please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of conventional moving point gesture determination conditions. In FIG. 2, a downward arrow denotes a starting time point of a touch, i.e. corresponding to an entering point; an upward arrow denotes an ending time point of the touch, i.e. corresponding to a leaving point. As shown in FIG. 2, a continuous occurrence time T1 is a time from a start of a first touch until leaving, and a touch interval time T2 is a time interval from the start of the first touch to a start of a second touch. Under such circumstances, conventional moving point gesture determination conditions only determine a moving point gesture occurs when two prerequisites are concurrently substantiated: the continuous occurrence time T1 is shorter than a reference time T1ref and the touch interval time T2 is shorter than a reference time T2ref. Such determination conditions imply that when performing a moving point gesture, users are required to click a first time to confirm an object to be moved, and then click a second time within the reference time T2ref, to commence moving the object.
Next, please refer to FIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of operations of a conventional moving point gesture, taking a notebook computer as an example. A screen 32 provides the user with needed information, and a touch panel 30 allows the user to perform touch operations. Since that the touch panel 30 is smaller in area than the screen 32, or that the touch panel 30 and the screen 32 are not superimposed (disposed on top of each other), the touch panel 30 and the screen 32 are mapped according to a relative position mapping. As shown in FIG. 3, the screen 32 displays objects OB1, OB2 and a cursor CS. Under such circumstances, since the touch panel 30 is mapped to the screen 32 according to relative position, when intending to move the object OB1, the user is required to first click on the touch panel 30, move, leave, and then repeat this process a number of times to move the cursor CS from an original position to the object OB1. The user then clicks on the object OB1 for confirmation, and then clicks again within the reference time T2ref to commence moving the object. Note that, during moving the cursor CS, it is possible that the cursor CS stops over the object OB2 while the user is during the process of clicking, moving and leaving; however, since conventional moving point gesture requires first clicking for confirmation, then clicking again within the reference time T2ref to commence moving, a possibility of mistakenly determining the user is performing a moving point operation on the object OB2 is precluded.
However, recent years have seen an integration of screens and touch sense devices (e.g. touch panels) with absolute position mapping turning into the mainstream. By definition, absolute position mapping represents that an absolute position of any touch point on a touch sense device may be directly mapped to an absolute position of any touch point on a screen, i.e. the touch panel and the screen have resolutions with a one-to-one mapping. In such devices, an area of the touch sense device approximates that of the screen, or the touch sense device and the screen are superimposed on top of each other. When using such devices, users may intuitively move around the screen to perform touch operations, and an absolute position on the screen maps to a corresponding absolute position on the touch panel. However, as described above, complexities of conventional moving point gesture determination conditions preclude users from intuitively performing moving point operations on such devices.
Hence, in response to technological developments and a change in mapping relationships between the touch panel and the screen, it is necessary to improve over conventional moving point gesture determination conditions, to accommodate touch sense devices utilizing absolute position mapping with the screen, and allow users to perform moving point gestures more intuitively.